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Illinois Football: Top 5 Recruits Who Will Impact the 2017 Season

By Rees Woodcock

Nov 12, 2016; Madison, WI, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini head coach Lovie Smith during the game against the Wisconsin Badgers at Camp Randall Stadium. Wisconsin won 48-3. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 12, 2016; Madison, WI, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini head coach Lovie Smith during the game against the Wisconsin Badgers at Camp Randall Stadium. Wisconsin won 48-3. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports /
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Illinois Football
Nov 12, 2016; Madison, WI, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini head coach Lovie Smith during the game against the Wisconsin Badgers at Camp Randall Stadium. Wisconsin won 48-3. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports /

The Illinois football team has a lot of talent coming in from the class of 2017.

This talent will be the building blocks for the future great teams in the history of this program.

Here are the five impact recruits for 2017.

OLB Del’Shawn Phillips

Heading into spring practice, Illinois needs to find a replacement for former starting middle linebacker, Hardy Nickerson.

Nickerson led the team in tackles last season with 107, and he also led the team in interceptions with two.

That is a lot of production to replace and one of the main reasons Del’Shawn Phillips is going to be so important to this team in 2017.

Phillips is a junior college transfer from Garden City Community College.  He was listed as a four-star recruit and picked the Illini over programs like Arizona, UCF, and Syracuse.

Right now, Phillips is slotted to start at middle linebacker heading into spring practice.  It is great he enrolled early so he can get acclimated to the power five conference speed.

If Phillips didn’t commit to Illinois they wouldn’t have had the depth they will have in 2017.

Behind Phillips is sophomore Dele’ Harding.  He played in nine games last season and most of that was on special teams.

Adding a player of Phillips caliber was important so the Illini didn’t lose much at the linebacker position.  I expect a big year out of him in 2017.

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